In order to ensure that everyone feels comfortable on this board, we ask you to behave according to the following set of rules.

1. First and foremost: Be Civil.

That is, no insults, name-calling, personal attacks or other forms of flaming, under any circumstances. If you disagree with someone, criticize what they're saying, without getting into how they're saying it or who they are. In other words, no ad hominem arguments, and keep criticism constructive and to the point.

This applies especially when talking to newbies; we have no minimum level of linguistic knowledge required to join the board, so no rudely dismissive comments to that effect. We were all new once, so don't be a jerk to someone just because you happened to get a head start.

To help with the above, try to avoid talking at or past each other or posting while angry. If it feels like you're beginning to become agitated or irate, give yourself a moment, an hour or a day to collect your thoughts before posting again. Similarly, if the discussion doesn't seem to be progressing, with users talking in circles, give each other some time and see if the thread can move forward later on. The thread should still be there when you get back.

2. No trolling/flamebait

As a general rule, do not post things that you know are going to offend, annoy or otherwise provoke other people. Sometimes there may be a good reason that justifies posting something provocative, but don't go out of your way to be inflammatory. Explain your position and be prepared to defend it.

Note that this includes controversial or extraordinary claims and opinions. Repeatedly posting these without providing evidence and proper argumentation to back them up will be considered trolling.

3. Tread lightly around sensitive subjects

Expanding on from the above, please keep in mind that some topics can very quickly result in hostility and flamewars if users treat them the wrong way. This includes topics revolving around religion, politics, and identity.

As a board dealing with both conlanging and conworlding, we certainly cannot ban these topics outright, since they play a pivotal role in developing a more fleshed out culture, but please try to stick to what's actually being said in such threads and stick to the facts, avoiding value judgements. Especially if you happen to hold negative views on someone else's religion (or lack of religion), ethnicity, sexuality, gender identity, neurotype, mental health or physical health situation, or anything of this sort, then try to keep those opinions to yourself (whether talking to or about an individual or a group). Large portions of the internet have, over the years, shown that these sorts of discussions, as mentioned previously, tend to lead to heated arguments and flamewars rather than healthy debate and conversation.

Again, while we tolerate constructive criticism and factual debate, what we not tolerate for very long are ad hominem attacks, bullying of individuals or groups, either on-board or off-board, from any side.

4. Don't put words in other people's mouths. Or thoughts in their heads

Occasional misunderstandings are inevitable in all human communication, and especially on the internet - but you can reduce the chances of them happening by trying to stick to responding to what people have actually said. Don't make further extrapolations on what someone "really" means or why they're saying what they are, not to mention broader generalizations on what kind of person they are. It's extremely rude and, at least unless you have a degree in psychology, very likely to go wrong. And by the way, this includes extrapolations made based on things like someone's gender, religion, ethnicity, etc. Finally, don't assume that what somebody adds to their conworld reflects what they actually believe, think or feel.

5. No spamming/flooding.

Occasional jokes or otherwise more or less pointless posts and even threads (preferably in the Everything Else forum unless there's a good reason to post them somewhere else) are fine, but try not to let them get in the way of actual discussion. Don't make posts just for the sake of making posts. And especially, don't create threads just for the sake of creating threads; a large number of frivolous threads has a nasty cluttering effect on a forum and makes it harder for people to spot the more interesting ones. This includes the creation of "game" threads which involve posting or changing a single word or less. And even if you have important things to say, combining as much stuff into one thread as possible is usually better than posting several new threads in the same forum at once.

In addition, with the exception of posting book recommendations or links to websites on topics related to languages, linguistics, conlangs and conworlds, commercial advertisements of any kind don't belong here.

6. Do not lie

Most importantly, don't post information you know to be false to play a practical joke on the newbies, don't pretend to be someone you aren't, and, no matter what you do, never take credit for other people's work.

For emphasis, sock-puppeting with multiple accounts is strictly forbidden and may result in the banning of both or all accounts.

7. Do not misuse rank

It is under no circumstances permitted to misuse rank images, the beginners' mentors banner or the admin-tags. Doing so will be penalized on sight.

Addendum 1: Forum Specific Guidelines

In addition to these general rules, some forums also have their own forum-specific guidelines (found in a sticky topic at the top of each forum that does). Be sure to familiarize yourself with those as well.

Addendum 2: A Note on Signatures

By and large, the same rules apply to your signature as to everything else you post here. Most importantly, it is no more appropriate to post controversial opinions or wage a personal vendetta against another board member via the signature than it would be in a normal forum post. (If anything, it's less so; after all, your signature by default gets attached to each of your posts instead of just one.)

Also, if you post a link to an external site in your signature, please make sure the linked content isn't in direct conflict with our rules, either. Specifically, linking to a commercial site counts as spam, and linking to one promoting controversial political/religious/whatever ideologies or containing other provocative material may count as trolling.[/edit]

If I don't hear anything back from Ossicone by the time I'm back online (likely not for another 24 to 48 hours), I might have to look at re-editing the thread to address the problem (unfortunately I can't take care of it now, but I've also passed the link onto Ossicone just in case).

Thank you

You can tell the same lie a thousand times,
But it never gets any more true,
So close your eyes once more and once more believe
That they all still believe in you.
Just one time.

After a conversation with my brother about this, I feel I should qualify that while the House Rules are currently not within the House Rules thread, they will still be enforced as if they were. I doubt anyone on the board would ever go so far as to thread this as a rule-free period, but thought I'd point it out just in case anyone was thinking of going a bit... "spring-break"

You can tell the same lie a thousand times,
But it never gets any more true,
So close your eyes once more and once more believe
That they all still believe in you.
Just one time.

If I don't hear anything back from Ossicone by the time I'm back online (likely not for another 24 to 48 hours), I might have to look at re-editing the thread to address the problem (unfortunately I can't take care of it now, but I've also passed the link onto Ossicone just in case).

Good move. I guess the post at the top would need to be edited to make it a link menu, and then the other topics would be in subsequent posts?

If I don't hear anything back from Ossicone by the time I'm back online (likely not for another 24 to 48 hours), I might have to look at re-editing the thread to address the problem (unfortunately I can't take care of it now, but I've also passed the link onto Ossicone just in case).

Good move. I guess the post at the top would need to be edited to make it a link menu, and then the other topics would be in subsequent posts?

I think that's what we had to do last time. Think the rewrite added a post.

You can tell the same lie a thousand times,
But it never gets any more true,
So close your eyes once more and once more believe
That they all still believe in you.
Just one time.

While reformatting and trying to find various links, it seems that some other information has been lost which needs filling in at various point across the board, most notably up-to-date information regarding Ranks and Banners, and we need to update the images we were using through the How To... sections.

Massive thanks to Khemehekis and Ossicone for digging up copies of the most recent versions of the thread. Hopefully we can fill out the rest in due course.

Sorry for the delay.

Sangi39

You can tell the same lie a thousand times,
But it never gets any more true,
So close your eyes once more and once more believe
That they all still believe in you.
Just one time.